Well, hello there, dear readers! Long time, no see.

The last time I updated, I was fresh from moving into my brand spanking new flat in Cardiff Bay. While it’s a lovely feeling to be living independently once more, I forgot exactly how long it can take to get connected when you move somewhere new.

On the plus side, whay! The internet is back!

And what better time to show you what I’ve been up to?

When it comes to sartorial choices, I feel the closer I can get to Joan Holloway, the better. For this reason, it baffles me how it’s taken me this long to finally make a wiggle dress.

My pattern book du jour, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, has to be Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing. Since she debuted her wiggle dress pattern on her blog last year, I’ve been itching to make my own.

The pattern itself seems simple enough- until you get to the bloody arm gussets. The hours I spent over those triangular (insert expletive here)!

I can’t say all those hours quite translate into the finished product. There are some puckers around the corners still, but hopefully no one will really notice those unless I plan on waving my arms around like I just don’t care. And even then, it might be in a place where everyone’s faaaar too drunk to notice. Who looks at armpits on a regular basis anyway?

I also can’t help but feel I’ve missed the mark somewhat on the sizing here. It may be worsened by my choice of fabric somewhat, but I just can’t get my head around the annoying crinkles and creases cropping up whenever I wear this dress.

After tacking it together, I had to take about an inch from each side of the dress, plus a little more off the hips as I’ve got quite a small waist to hip ratio.

The fabric is a cotton number with some teeny-tiny polka dots. I used some left-over scraps from my Mathilde blouse to make the cuffs and lined the whole thing with some of John Lewis’ basic lining fabric.

That said – I love the sunny colour, I’m well chuffed with the cuffed sleeves (self-drafted! I can do a tutorial if anyone fancies it…) and have finally cracked the perfect technique for a sturdy skirt vent.

Nevertheless, I’ve got the wiggle dress bug now and I’ll definitely be making another. I don’t think I’ll use this pattern again. I’ve got my eye on a BurdaStyle number with a draped cowl detail – are there any wiggle dress patterns out there you would recommend?